Hokkaido: Japan's wild north with brown bears, wetlands and Shiretoko

Hokkaido is the northernmost of Japan's four main islands and, at around 83,424 square kilometres, the country's second-largest island. The Tsugaru Strait separates it from Honshu; its coasts lie on the Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific. According to Wikipedia, just under five million people live on the island (as of 1 October 2025). The native conifer species in the north of the island is the Sakhalin fir.

Hokkaido has seven national parks, including Daisetsuzan with the Sōunkyō gorge in the Daisetsu-zan volcanic area, Akan-Mashu and Shikotsu-Tōya. Shiretoko National Park was declared a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site in 2005. The Kushiro wetland has been a Ramsar site since 1980; at 2,510 square kilometres, the Kushiro Plain is considered Japan's largest wetland. The island's wildlife includes the Ussuri brown bear – Hokkaido has more brown bears than any other part of Asia outside Russia – as well as sea otters, Steller's sea eagles and Yezo sika deer.

For travellers, Hokkaido is particularly popular in two seasons: in summer it is cooler and less humid than the rest of Japan, with average August temperatures of 17 to 22 degrees Celsius. The June–July rainy season that affects much of Japan usually spares the island. Heavy snowfall typically sets in from November; up to eleven metres of snow fall each year on the mountains facing the Sea of Japan, and ski resorts usually operate from December to April. In winter, large floes of drift ice often hamper shipping in the Sea of Okhotsk, and Sapporo hosts its well-known Snow Festival.